Like I’m a Viking white collar worker
Wonder why the dean wants to meet with us in a small group

Hold on let me get my jacket
No one at work can know I have breasts

This poem forgets to float
The money’s that good

Remotely, I see
You have a lot going on

From your home office we hear
A truck beep loudly over you while you speak

I wonder who’s prayer
It’s answering

—

Ariel Yelen is a poet whose work has been published in Poetry, BOMB, the American Poetry Review, Washington Square Review, and other magazines. “Taking the ferry to work like an adventurer” appears in I Was Working, published by Princeton University Press on October 8, 2024.